Ever since we learned the truth about Beth’s secret in “Yellowstone” Season 3, fans have been wondering when Rip Wheeler will find out.
The secret in question is the fact that Beth can’t have children because she was sterilized as a teenager. At 14, she got pregnant with Rip’s baby and asked her brother Jamie to help her get an abortion. Jamie chose to take her to a clinic on a reservation so that people wouldn’t gossip about a Dutton getting an abortion. But Jamie never told Beth that one of the conditions of going there was that she had to be sterilized afterward.
Beth has held that against Jamie for the past four “Yellowstone” seasons. And while John Dutton found out in Season 3, Rip has been left in the dark. One fan posted on Reddit recently that they’d like to see that change in Season 5.
“I want Rip to find out about the abortion,” the original poster wrote. “I think the way he would be trapped between wanting to avenge this horrible thing done to both he and Beth, and not wanting to go against John by killing one of his sons, [would be interesting].”
The responses from fellow “Yellowstone” fans, surprisingly, varied all across the board.
‘Yellowstone’ Fans Debate Who’s to Blame for Beth’s Secret
One “Yellowstone” fan pointed out a missing fact from the original poster’s thought: Rip mad at Beth for keeping it from him.
“Rip would more than likely be angrier with Beth for lying and hiding it from him. Chances are John Dutton would have taken young Rip to the train station if he had found out back in the day,” the fan commented on the post.
Another “Yellowstone” fan echoed the thought that Rip would realize he couldn’t have known about it back in the day.
“I think he’ll be mad and try to intimidate Jamie, but I don’t think he’ll go that far. Rip has to know if the abortion didn’t happen secretly he would have been off the ranch immediately and ended up dead or in jail,” someone else added. “John would not have taken kindly to the boy in the barn sleeping with his daughter back then.”
A different person surprisingly thought of things from Jamie’s point of view as well.
“It’s f***** up of Beth to use Rip like that. Keeping that secret until it’s convenient for her to use Rip’s anger. And I think Rip is smarter than that,” the other “Yellowstone” fan said. “Jamie was a kid and was doing what he thought was best for Beth. I feel bad for Jaime a lot.”
Few people say that. But the fan raises a fair point about Beth keeping the secret from Rip to use his anger against Jamie. That’s exactly what Beth’s “Option 2” was for Jamie in the “Yellowstone” Season 4 finale.
We could also look at things from this fan’s perspective. They point out the most important fact: “Many people are responsible here.”
It’s not all on Beth or Jamie or John or Rip. Everyone has to take responsibility for what happened. And hopefully, they can navigate the aftermath together.
